Europe, a continent of only more than 1,000 square kilometers, has a number of countries that do not match its own size, as many as 44 countries and regions. There are only 48 countries in the adjacent Big Mac Asia, and the two are almost equal, and one of the main reasons for this phenomenon is the disintegration of an empire that has existed for only 52 years, the "Austro-Hungarian Empire".
The Habsburgs
The origins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire also begin with the Habsburg dynasty, when in 1156 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I used a small privilege scheme to dismantle Bavaria, which transformed Austria from a border countate attached to Bavaria into a ducal territory, and Austria was officially established.
In 1282 the Habsburgs began to rule Austria and soon became Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, annexing the surrounding principalities for more than 200 years, becoming the largest state in the country.
Map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire
After the birth of Austria, it has experienced many tests, such as the Seven Years' War, the Anti-French Alliance and a series of wars, which still stands among the European powers, but compared with the glory of the 19th century, Austria has been greatly weakened. The Italian War of Independence of 1859 deprived Austria of all non-Austrian historical territory in Italy, and the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 excluded Austria from the German Confederation. In 1848, when the Russian Empire supported Austria in suppressing the Hungarian Revolution, nationalist ideas emerged in many regions, resulting in unprecedented rebellions. In order to appease hungary, a second nation in the country, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was established in 1867 through a compromise proposal through negotiations with the nobility.
Sarajevo, the fuse of the First World War
After the emergence of this empire, the land area in Europe was second only to Russia, the population was slightly inferior to Russia and the German Empire, and it was among the best in terms of machinery manufacturing, military production, agricultural output, and resource reserves. Because of the outbreak of World War I, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was directly divided and disintegrated. Also a defeated country, Italy relied on its "wall-headed grass" skills to become a victorious power, and Germany needed to pay a lot of war reparations and land. The Austro-Hungarian Empire disappeared directly after the end of the war, and the huge ethnic contradictions in the country led many regions to declare independence directly, splitting into "Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia", and interestingly, later Yugoslavia was divided into 10 countries of "Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina". Interestingly, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not dissolved, and it is likely that the national football ranking will be much higher.
Austro-Hungarian soldiers
The main reason for the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not only the national problem, but also the physical reasons of the country at that time, when the Austrian nobles, in order to appease the Hungarian nobles, formulated a dualistic empire (Austro-Hungarian Empire) at the beginning of the establishment of the two sides. This means that two small governments unite to form a government, both of which have their own parliaments and prime ministers, and the supreme leader is the emperor, but only the superficial control of the overall situation is extremely limited. It is good to say that everyone is happy to start a war with the outside world to get rich, and once they encounter failures and differences, they will inevitably blame each other.
This dualism, which had been established through compromise, was itself an extremely irrational scheme, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire was also very numerous, and there was no dominant culture to unite these peoples, and the final result was only extinction.